The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Rothes Halls, December 14, Carnegie Hall, December 15
“What I really want to go into is Scrooge’s redemption,” says performer and producer Guy Masterson, who is bringing his one-man stage version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol to Fife this weekend.
“A lot of productions of A Christmas Carol tend to go into the Christmassy aspect of it but even though it’s set at Christmas, it’s not really about Christmas. It’s about the redemption of a man who’s lived his life in a very poor and narrow way and he sees the error of his ways.
“In today’s society, where people are focused on surviving, on keeping their head down and getting on with it, it’s all too easy to forget what’s going on around you and the people who are suffering. So in that respect A Christmas Carol really does press some buttons.”
The great-grandnephew of the actor Richard Burton, Masterson is recognised as one of the hardestworking people in British theatre, particularly for his wealth of hit Edinburgh Festival productions over the years.
He was particularly prolific as a producer and director in the 2000s, and was behind the hit stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Christian Slater, ensemble versions of 12 Angry Men and The Odd Couple made for casts of comedians including Bill Bailey and Alan Davies, and the Olivier Award-winning comedy biography Morecambe.
Yet as a performer, his stage fame rests on simply-staged, one-man versions of classic stories which get to show off his power and versatility, from Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood to George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Invited two years ago to give a single reading of Dickens’ own monologue text for A Christmas Carol by director Nick Hennegan, Masterson turned the tables and asked Hennegan to direct him in this touring version, which will be approaching its 70th performance by the time Christmas arrives.
“I morph into each of the various characters so each one has a distinct physicality and voice,” says Masterson.
“It’s quite a straightforward story with a number of key characters and a narrator, who is me, effectively. There are great lighting effects and a terrific soundscape which just really fills out the show, so the audience are able to get a lot out of it, even though it’s a solo version. It’s a very modern approach.”
These dates follow a full Edinburgh Festival run in August – “A Christmas Carol in summer, that was fun,” jokes Masterson – and positive reviews all round. “I couldn’t want a better reception, people seem to really love it,” he says. “Some say it’s the best thing I’ve done; I don’t know about that but it’s lovely to hear.”